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dailypuzzle

Ginger GM

Chess.com

June 16, 2014 11:45

FIDE World Rapid Championship Takes Off Today

Today theFIDE World Rapid Championship starts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Right after the World Blitz will be held, and together they're clearly the strongest quickplay chess event ever. Eight players from the current live ratings top 10 will participate, including the world's top three - Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia), and ex-World Champion Vishy Anand. Hikaru Nakamura tops both the official rapid and blitz rating lists.

The FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship will be held 15-21 June at the Dubai Culture & Chess Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates with three days of rapid chess on 16-18 June and then three days of blitz on 19-21 June. And, yes, Chess.com will be present to provide on-the-spot coverage! This article is written from a hotel room right across the street of the Dubai Chess Club.

The opening ceremony was held on Sunday, where main organizer Khaled Zayed expressed his sincere appreciation to Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and sponsor of the event. He also expressed his gratitude to Dubai Sports Council and Dubai Municipality for playing a vital role in organizing these tournaments, and welcomed all players.

Top seed Hikaru Nakamura was invited on stage to perform the drawing of lots. From the first box he picked a black king, and so he will start the first round of the World Rapid Championship on Monday with the black pieces and it means that all participants with odd numbers will have Black for the first round as well.

In his second attempt, Mr Nakamura selected a white king and it means he will play with the white pieces in the first game of the World Blitz Championship. Read here how the American GM sees his chances.

Two years ago, a fairly strong field competed in Astana (Kazakhstan), but last year, in Khanty-Manskiysk, not many top players participated. But this year it's going to be a real treat! Check out the top 30 of the participants list (and don't miss the full list here). Only Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov are missing from the (classical) top 10:

The total prize fund of U.S. $400,000 is no doubt an important reason that almost all top players are going to Dubai. A clear first place in both events comes down to earning $80,000 in one week:

Prize fund for each event

#

Prize (U.S. $)

1st Place

40,000

2nd Place

32,000

3rd Place

26,000

4th Place

21,000

5th Place

17,000

6th Place

13,000

7th Place

11,000

8th Place

9,000

9th Place

7,000

10th Place

4,000

11th-16th place

2,000 each

17th-24th place

1,000 each

Time controls
In the Rapid Championship, each player will have 15 minutes plus 10 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. In the Blitz Championship, each player will have 3 minutes plus 2 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1.

The World Rapid starts today at 3pm local time which is 1pm CET, 7am New York and 4am Los Angeles. The championship will be broadcast live on the tournament’s official website with online games and commentary.

Comments

This is going to be really interesting. The average chess player probably plays much more blitz than classical so this relates much more to the games we play.
It will be a big test for Nakamura's rapid reputation and an opportunity for Carlsen to move his classical dominance to rapid. Or maybe Karjakin or Grischuk can take it.

Ah, Kramnik-bashing again. He obviously decided to skip the World Rapid/Blitz championship before Norway Chess - maybe because he doesn't want to play two events right after each other and rather spends time with his family. Topalov, who recently became father, also skips Dubai, while Anand declined the Norway Chess invitation. On the other hand, family men Svidler and rapid/blitz aficionado Grischuk play both events.

Ah, now it's "spending time with family" excuse. As if an extra 2 or 3 days makes much difference.

Topalov does not play because he knows he is no good at this form of chess, while Anand prefers not to confront Carlsen in classical before the World Championship.
But Kramnik - well he chickens out, like with the press conferences. Kramnik is in meltdown and is finished.

Something weird is going on concerning Boris Gelfand. I was looking forward to seeing him in action again after a longer break. First of all, next to his name on their site, their is - conspicuously - the flag of FIDE. Moreover, I can't see him anywhere in the live games.
Can anyone elaborate on what's the matter?

When Israelis play in Muslim countries they often ask the organizer not to mention their nationality. They did this for the Israelis at the world juniors also. This is better for the safety of all the players.

Well I thought I read that it was either a request of the Israelis or their happy agreement at the world juniors. If so then that wouldn't be "scandalous". Also, unless Gelfand's people or his federation are raising a protest then I think it is safer not to discuss it.

FIDE regulations say a player must be at least 2500 on one of their rating lists but a peak at the full list of participants reveal that the bottom 20 or so don't meet that criteria. I understand that the organizer should get some wild-card entries from their federation but those underrated players are from several different countries. Can anyone explain this?

Honestly, I don't know. And I couldn't care less. I am more interested in the players on the top which have already produced truly fine games today. For some strange reasons these weak guys are allowed to play but what does it matter anyway?

Why don't we all talk about chess more often here in the comments? I don't mean to be rude. I've been coming here for years, and I like the website. However, the discussions taking place in the comment section here - and perhaps this is merely the norm on the internet - are a complete mystery to me.

Very often comments posted here are clearly bait to incite arguments about one player or another. Is this just more entertaining than talking about the games? Perhaps it is so, and that's OK.

However, I would assume that we're coming here because we love playing chess ourselves, no? We're only around for so long, after all - and of course able to learn about and play this mysterious game for even less time - so why spend it responding to all of the hyperbole? Perhaps it is just the nature of the chess player to be so compelled by quiet, trivial animosity.

Did you disagree with the U.S. competing in the 1936 olympics in Nazi Germany? There was a debate about it but they decided to compete. Guess what one of their Black runners did to the Nazi's Aryan Superiority theory? Hitler was quite embarassed by having to award a gold medal to Jesse Owens. If the U.S. would have boycotted then that never could have happened. So there is more than one way to 'take a stand'.

Actually, Hitler wasn`t present at the stadium at all when Jesse Owens won his gold medals, so he did not award him any gold as you claim, hence no embarrassment either. He was present at the athletics stadium only the first day of the games, and Owens started winning on the second day. Hitler and the German officials were very happy that Germany won more medals than any other nation, and probably wasn`t too bothered by any single athlete.
On the other hand, he was present when the German football team lost to Norway in the quarter final and was reportedly furious about that. Hitler left the only football match he ever saw in his life, well before the end.
Jesse Owens was actually quite popular in Germany during the games, he said himself that his reception in Berlin was greater than anywhere else he had been and only complained that there were too many autograph seekers.
The Dassler brothers (Adolf and Rudolf, who after WWII split up and founded Adidas and Puma) made special running shoes for him.
Yes, he was shunned, but not by Hitler or the Germans. When the athletes came home to the US, unlike the white olympic champions, Owens was not invited to visit president Roosevelt in the White House. He never even received a congratulatory letter from the president, and for him there were no special offers from Hollywood etc.
So yes, he was discriminated against, but not by Hitler or the Germans, but in his home country.
That Hitler thing you mention is just a myth.

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